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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730088">Like Fire</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashley_vh/pseuds/Ashley_vh'>Ashley_vh</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic Fluff, Emotional Sex, Essek lives in Nicodranas and is in a happy relationship with Caleb, Established Relationship, M/M, Masturbation, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Nesting, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Porn with Feelings, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:34:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,439</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashley_vh/pseuds/Ashley_vh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Essek goes into heat when Caleb is out adventuring.  He'll be returning soon, but will Essek be able to tell him what it means?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>147</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Like Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>4/19/20</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Essed woke suddenly, which was odd. </p>
<p>He hadn’t intended to actually sleep.  He usually tranced when Caleb was out traveling.  Trancing took less time, and sleep wasn’t as restful when he was alone.  It wasn’t as good.</p>
<p>Sweat covered his skin, making his thin sleep shirt stick to his chest.  He kicked off his blankets, feeling smothered by the cloth against him; the normally pleasant heat of Nicodranas felt choking against his damp skin.</p>
<p>He rolled on his side, trying to get comfortable in bed to sweat out whatever fever must have taken him in the night.  Perhaps he could ask Jester or Caduceus to heal him when they got back to Nicodranas later that day.</p>
<p>Essek was absolutely miserable.  His body felt empty, loneliness curling through him.  Part of him still tensed at the thought of needing Caleb there with him, even after the few months of their relationship, but he wished Caleb was there with him.  Having the man just sitting beside him, reading a book, sleeping, petting Frumpkin, it doesn’t matter, having him there would make Essek feel better.</p>
<p>The bed was too flat, too firm, pillow not positioned properly, too uncomfortable to sleep on his side.  He sighed wistfully, rolling onto his back again. The sun bazing from under his thick curtains made him furrow his brow.  He didn’t usually sleep so long, even when Caleb was there with him.  </p>
<p>He shifted again, sitting up to arrange the pillow to support him better.  With a pleased sigh, he laid back, briefly comfortable.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t enough.  He sat up again, frowning at the pillow.  Maybe more pillows would feel better.  </p>
<p>Essek pushed himself off the bed, walking quickly to the closet in the hall where he’d stored the piles and piles of extra pillows and blankets that Jester had forced into his arms when he bought his house.</p>
<p>Out of instinct, he grabbed as many pillows and blankets he could, using magic to levitate what he couldn’t carry himself.  Dropping everything into a pile on his bedroom floor, a mess he’d normally never allow, he used magic to shove the bed against the corner and got to work.  </p>
<p>He didn’t realize he’d been acting without thought until the structure was complete.  Essek stared at his newly constructed nest with confusion. Surely it wasn’t… </p>
<p>But it did look comfortable.  Low walls made of folded and twisted blankets surrounded the softest pillows he had along the full length and width of the bed, creating a soft spot to comfortably sprawl with walls to keep either of them from falling out—Not either of them.  Just him. He wouldn’t ask Caleb to join him.  With any luck, this fever would be gone and the pillows and blankets hidden away for washing before Caleb even got back.</p>
<p>He climbed in the nest, sighing with contentment he couldn’t contain as he settled into the softness.  As much as he hated to admit this was a nest, it was surprisingly comfortable. The pillows supported his lower back, knees, and neck, and the blanket walls gave him something to curl against as he settled in the bed.</p>
<p>Essek trailed his fingers over the mis-matched colors of blankets Jester had given him, and wished again that Caleb was there to be with him.</p>
<p>It had only been a week, the Nein off to run an errand for Jester’s father, but it felt like years to Essek.  He’d longed for Caleb to return before he’d even left.</p>
<p>Caleb had been with him that night, a “date night” that Essek had laughed at when Caleb suggested it.  After a few date nights though, he’d come to look forward to those nights when Caleb’s attention was only on him, when their friends knew not to disturb them.  Especially the night before a trip away.</p>
<p>They were in Essek’s kitchen, sitting at the table with wine as Essek complained about some would-be adventurer that had come to him looking for magical items that he couldn’t pay for but would threaten for.  Caleb had wanted to make him laugh, make him happy, distract him from bastard sorcerers and holier-than-thou palidans, so he summoned Frumpkin to the table in front of him.</p>
<p>Frumpkin bumped his head against Essek’s forehead, purring for only a second to make Essek smile before he turned to the center of the table.  He looked at Caleb in confusion for a moment, but the human only said “watch.” </p>
<p>So he watched.  Frumpkin turned back to them, his tail high in the air before he hopped up onto his hind legs.  Caleb commanded him to start a ridiculous little dance that startled a laugh out of Essek. Frumpkin kept going until Essek was properly laughing.  He’d been laughing more and more the longer he stayed away from the Dynasty, the longer he stayed with Caleb.</p>
<p>He looked over at Caleb, and the world may as well have frozen. </p>
<p>Caleb was laughing too, watching his cat.  Essek stared at him, at the laugh lines, at the way his nose scrunched up, and the ease he shared this moment with Essek.  And he felt warmth flood through his body, darkening his cheeks and making his skin tingle.  </p>
<p>Essek leaned forward, capturing Caleb’s smile with a kiss that didn’t fully disappear as he returned the kiss.  He felt the warmth of Caleb’s cheek under his palm and he was suddenly desperate.  </p>
<p>They slept together that night, not their first time, but it may as well have been from the tremor in Essek’s hands.  </p>
<p>And Caleb left with the Nein the next morning.</p>
<p>Essek usually didn’t mind Caleb leaving on adventures.  It meant he was able to work on commissioned items, research, or little gifts he would later gift to the Nein without being interrupted.  But the warm feeling he’d gotten watching Caleb laugh had to share space in his heart with the aching loneliness at the thought of a week without him, and it <em> ached</em>.</p>
<p>The feeling, the ache, hadn’t left since Caleb left his bed.</p>
<p>Now, with the soft blanket under his fingertips, he closed his eyes.  He wished Caleb was here with him. He <em> wanted </em> so badly.  To run his fingers through his long hair, to scratch his fingertips through the coarse hair of his beard, his chest, around his dick. </p>
<p>Essek groaned, like he could actually feel it under his touch.  They’d only had sex a few times, and this desperation for him, for his touch, when Caleb wasn’t with him was new.  His skin pebbled with goosebumps as he ran his own hand through his hair, pushing the sweaty hair off his forehead.</p>
<p>He was already hard and aching against his sleep pants, just from the thought of Caleb’s hair tangled in his fingers, the beard scratching against his skin.  </p>
<p>This wasn’t something Essek had experienced before.  Caleb had been his first partner, and before him, Essek didn’t masturbate much.  He rarely felt the need to. And never because he merely thought of a specific person. </p>
<p>But now he needed Caleb so much it was like he couldn’t breathe.  </p>
<p>Essek pushed his sleep pants down to his thighs, not bothering to undress completely.  He took himself in hand and groaned loudly in the silence of his bedroom. All he could think of was Caleb.  </p>
<p>It was too dry, too quick, but soon enough his precome was able to smooth the way with just enough friction to be just right.  He closed his eyes, touching himself the way Caleb would touch him.  </p>
<p>Caleb's fingers would wrap around him and stroke slowly, dragging out the pleasure until Essek was shaking, tweaking a nipple with his free hand and kissing or sucking marks into his neck.  </p>
<p>He moaned, stroking himself closer and closer with thoughts of Caleb.  Essek had always had a good imagination. It was like Caleb was there with him, replaying the memories until he could practically feel the calloused hands, the lips on his skin, the weight of Caleb pressing him into the nest—</p>
<p>Essek’s orgasm took him by surprise.  Gasping as his back arched up off the bed, his come spilled over his hand and lower belly.  </p>
<p>He was panting and shivering, still hard and longing for Caleb’s touch against his skin, his breath against his ear, the scratch of his beard against his neck—</p>
<p>“Fuck.”  Essek said aloud.  He knew what this was.  What was happening. There was no way he could deny it anymore.</p>
<p>With his clean hand, Essek scrubbed his hand over his face and groaned.  His hand waved away the mess with prestidigitation, and he burrowed deeper in his nest.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This work was inspired by the amazing fic called "Heat" published anonymously.  It inspired me to write my own Essek goes into heat fics, and I highly recommend that fic.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any prompts for Shadowgast, I love them and they need more works &lt;3</p>
<p>Thanks to @yourknightofrage for being my enabler.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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